


the discontinuity principle (solve for b)

by flyingthesky



Series: the theory of averages and outliers [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Canon-Typical Violence, Drinking, F/M, Human Experimentation, Magical Artifacts, Mild Language, i could tag this as a soulmate au except this is the exact opposite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-11 08:05:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4427735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingthesky/pseuds/flyingthesky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A modern soulmate AU with a Librarians/Agents of SHIELD bit of a twist. In one bright, flashing moment, Clarke discovers her soulmate. She has a decision to make--act off of this information and follow the path destiny has laid out for her, or turn away from it and forge her own path. In both universes she follows her heart, but in this one she decides destiny can suck it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the discontinuity principle (solve for b)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [twistedsky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedsky/gifts).



> I'm pretty sure it's not actually my birthday anywhere in the world anymore, but our internet fritzed this morning and then I cleaned a beach and didn't get home until just now so I hope I can be forgiven. If you've missed it, you may want to read [the predestination factor (solve for r)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4328727) at some point, since it's directly related to this story.
> 
> Much love to my very favorite person in the whole world: [twistedsky](http://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedsky/pseuds/twistedsky), who puts up with me continually being a disaster at everything.

Bellamy spends a lot of his time yelling at his team. It's his job as, like, the leader of this rag-tag group of idiots who spend a lot of their time dealing with magical artifacts that can potentially end the world.

Of course, nobody ever goddamn _listens_ to him when he yells—which is why Clarke does something incredibly stupid and picks up the goddamn orb that they've come to retrieve. They have no idea what it does, except that it's been causing riots, and Clarke just picks the thing up like it's a newspaper or something. Bellamy pulls out his gun when she does, just in case he has to shoot her (which would suck because Clarke is the only medic with more than basic training) and yells some more because _why doesn't anyone listen to him_.

All he wants is one mission—just one!—where the whole thing doesn't devolve into a shitstorm. This is apparently not that mission. Bellamy hates his life. He hates it even more when Clarke starts laughing hysterically, because if Clarke—beautifully sane and reasonable Clarke—has gone crazy, then they are _fucked_.

Then she sticks the orb into a neutralizing bag and everything is normal again.

Well, as normal as their team gets. Clarke keeps looking at Lincoln like he's grown three heads, and she keeps looking at Raven, but only when Raven is looking at her phone. Bellamy doesn't have _time_ for this.

\----

Wells throws the fuck up on the way home because he ate an expired tuna sandwich. Out of vending machine. _Who eats tuna sandwiches out of vending machines_?? Why would a vending machine even have a tuna sandwich? God, Bellamy hates his team sometimes.

He has no idea why he agreed when Monty was like "oh, the mission is in Chicago this time so we can just drive there." They should have taken the door in their base that will take them anywhere, no twenty-five minute long car drives involved. Especially no twenty-five minute long car drives where _Clarke_ is driving.

Usually Clarke is ok, but whatever that orb did must've messed her up because apparently _she_ bought the tuna sandwich. Shouldn't the team medic know better than to buy questionable tuna sandwiches? She should've asked him. He would've told her it was a dumb idea. He also would've told her she couldn't drive because Clarke is a _scary_ driver.

Thankfully, they make it the rest of the way home without anything else terrible happening.

\----

"Bellamy!" Octavia hugs him basically as soon as he walks into the base. He'd tell her to be careful, but she wouldn't listen and Bellamy tries to chose his battles with Octavia. "How did the mission go? Was it dangerous? Did anyone get hurt?"

"Nope," Bellamy says easily. He's taken to making missions sound really boring, because when he used to emphasize how dangerous their jobs are, Octavia used to get weirdly excited and really. The last thing Bellamy needs is for his sister to be out in the field _again_. "It was very boring. We bagged the object, and now we're back."

"Come _on_ ," Octavia whines. She hooks their arms together and pouts up at him. " _Something_ fun must have happened!"

"Monty turned into a mermaid," Raven says as she walks by. She's walking like her bad leg is really bothering her, and Bellamy makes a mental note to tell Clarke about it later. "Wells threw a grenade into a giant, fire-breathing rhinoceros' mouth. Lincoln said more than three words this mission."

"Really?" Octavia unhooks her arm from Bellamy's and starts walking next to Raven. "Did he touch the object? Is that why he talked so much? What did Clarke do this mission?"

Bellamy slows down, letting Raven walk Octavia into the kitchen area, and touches Clarke on the shoulder. She jumps, and Bellamy seriously hopes she starts acting normal again sometime soon.

"Got a minute?"

"Sure," Clarke says. She tries to smile, Bellamy can tell, but it doesn't quite come out right. "What's up?"

"You should check Raven's leg later. She's favoring her good leg again, and I don't want to have to bench her too. You know we can't afford that."

Clarke nods, but she seems a little lost in her own thoughts. Normally, Bellamy doesn't pry into that stuff because it's not really . . . like, he can deal with Octavia's shit, because she's his sister. He's not so good at dealing with other people's shit, because he's not even that great at dealing with his own. This, though. Clarke doesn't get like this, and he wasn't joking when he said they couldn't afford to bench anyone.

"Hey," he says. When Clarke doesn't respond, Bellamy snaps his fingers. "Earth to Clarke Griffin, come back from Planet Weird before Jaha declares you unfit for missions."

"What?" Clarke finally looks at him, and her expression is . . . complicated. Bellamy doesn't even try to parse it. "I'm not. Have I been acting weird?"

"Yes." There's no point in lying to Clarke about that. "Seriously, you've been weird ever since you touched the orb. You ok? Maybe you should let your mom check you out."

"I'm fine." Clarke rolls her eyes, and Bellamy almost sighs in relief. That's normal. That's Clarke. "Don't worry about me, worry about what Octavia accidentally set on fire what we were gone."

It's a joke, and Bellamy totally realizes that but he's seized by the sudden thought that Octavia actually might have set something on fire and _god_ he does not want to have to pay for more replacement equipment out of his paycheck. They seriously don't get paid enough for that.

With one last glance at Clarke, Bellamy heads into the kitchen to yell at his sister. She always needs a reminder that he's the older brother for a reason.

\---

There's a lot of things Bellamy is used to.

He's used to protecting his sister from things he can't protect her from and failing. He's used to Monty's voice in his ear, telling him important information and keeping the team running smoothly. He's used to Raven casually creating bombs in her spare time and using them without warning if she feels an explosion is necessary. He's used to Clarke patching him up, patching everyone up, after they come back from a mission. He's used to Wells being exactly where he needs to be, knowing exactly what to say to someone in order to neutralize a situation.

He's also used to being woken up at 3AM by his "best" friend. Sometimes, Bellamy thinks he should rethink Miller's classification as his best friend.

"It's 3AM," Bellamy says into the phone, "what could you possibly want, Miller?"

"Remember how you said that we'd look out for each other?" Miller sounds vaguely worried, which immediately makes Bellamy more awake. Miller doesn't really _do_ worried. "No matter what?"

"Yeah? What's up? Are you in trouble or something?"

"Not yet," Miller says, like that's not freaky and ominous. "Maybe not at all, but I'm going undercover in a Mountain Men base in a couple hours. If you don't hear from me in a while, come get me."

"Don't do anything stupid, Miller." Bellamy sits up, groping for his bedside lamp. The soft light floods his sparse room and he can hear Miller's breathing on the other ends of the line. "Safe passage."

"I won't do anything you wouldn't do." That's like the opposite of saying he won't do anything stupid, and Bellamy is self-aware enough to realize that. He's done a lot of stupid shit in his life. "May we meet again."

\----

Before taking the job with the Ark Organization, there were a lot of things that Bellamy pretty safely assumed he would never have to say. Things like "fuck you for unleashing a zombie apocalypse" and "how hard can it be to track down a ghost ship" and "we are never getting this alien peanut butter out of the van."

"You've got to be kidding me," Bellamy says as he enters the room where Clarke and Wells are currently tag teaming the current threat to humanity, "the flying monkeys are _real_?"

"A little help, Bellamy??" Clarke stabs a flying monkey through the chest with what Bellamy thinks might be a decorative sword she stole from the curiously empty display above the fireplace. "Or you can just stand there and be useless, that's fine too."

"I'm coming," Bellamy says. He rolls his eyes, even though Clarke won't be able to see, and pulls out his gun. God, he really wishes their job were less ridiculous sometimes. "Monty, ETA on you figuring out what the hell is causing this!"

"Uhhhhhhhhhh." Monty dragging out his answers is never a good sign, and the flying monkey creatures just keep getting back up. Great, they're _zombie_ flying monkeys. "Ffffffffive minutes? Maybe ten."

"You have three!" Clarke wrenches the sword from another flying monkey as she yells, and Bellamy is equally angry and impressed with her. "Otherwise Raven gets to blow up the whole building because _I don't want to deal with this_."

"It'll be fine." Wells casually snaps the neck of a flying monkey like they're not fighting _flying monkeys_ and this is their life. Bellamy sometimes wishes he could be as zen as Wells is. Sometimes he wonders if that's what being temporarily dead does to a person—makes everything seem insignificant in comparison. "Raven won't have to blow anything up."

There's a half-hearted _aw, I was looking forward to that_ from Raven over the comms, but it's mostly drowned out by the inhuman shriek of like a hundred flying monkeys all descending from the ceiling. Bellamy used to think flying monkeys were kind of cool, but he's pretty sure they're going to be haunting his nightmares forever at this rate. If he had any other skill set, he would absolutely quit and take another job that didn't involve been attacked by dive bombing monkeys.

" _Monty_!" Clarke is sounds pretty desperate, and Bellamy doesn't blame her. He's shooting down monkeys as fast as he can and there's still _so many_. "Monty, time's up!"

"It's the sword! You have to douse the sword in water!"

"Where do you suggest we _get_ water, Monty?" Bellamy punches a monkey in the face, mainly because he ran out of ammo. Of course. "We're kind of short on time here."

"I got it, hang on!"

Bellamy kind of knows, even before it happens, that Monty's going to turn the sprinklers on and douse them in water. That doesn't really lessen the shock of being doused in cold water, and about the only good part of the whole ordeal is that the monkeys do, in fact, disappear. Clarke lets the sword clatter to the ground as she leans against the fireplace.

"The next time a mission involves flying monkeys," she says solemnly, " _Jasper's team can have it_."

\----

As much as Bellamy complains to Jaha all the time about his job and the team, they work well together. There's a rhythm they have going that's comfortable, and he has it on good authority that his team is the team that's had the least member swaps. Really, they've only had two: they _benched_ Octavia after their first mission together because they really, really didn't need unstable fire powers out in the field with them and swapped in Jasper, who lasted all of one mission before they requested a new communications expert and got Monty.

In theory, Bellamy guesses they could have kept Jasper, but Jasper is also the shittiest communications expert Bellamy has ever worked with so it wasn't really that difficult to come to conclusion as a team that they should replace him. Seriously, Jasper had no idea where anyone was despite the fact that the van has monitors and shit that tell you that sort of thing. Octavia didn't even stay in the van during her one and only mission and _she_ kept better track of everyone's locations.

Besides, swapping Jasper out meant they ended up with Monty and Monty's pretty much the best communications expert in the entire Ark Organization. Even if he's always complaining that he doesn't get to go outside the van.

"I already said I was sorry," Monty says, breaking Bellamy out of his train of thought. "There wasn't any other way to get water to the sword in time."

"Warn a girl before you douse her ass in cold water!" Raven is drying her hair with one of the towels they keep in the van for this exact purpose, and Clarke is removing her leg brace. She still sometimes looks at Raven strangely when she thinks Raven isn't looking, and she's doing it now. "I thought you were just going to turn the sprinklers on in the library where the rest of them were."

"I was," Monty says, sheepish. "But uh. It turns out the whole sprinkler system was connected, so to turn it on in the library, I had to turn it on in the entire building?"

"We completed the mission and no one got hurt," Wells says. Sometimes, Bellamy thinks that Wells took after his dad way too much and his attitude has nothing to do with him dying. "That's all that matters."

"It's true. That's more than I can say for our last five missions," Clarke says. She's inspecting Raven's leg brace and shaking her head slightly. "I have no idea how Wick made this thing, we're gonna have to ask him to fix it back at the base."

"I'll take us back, then." 

Monty turns the van on and almost immediately they're back in the base's garage. Bellamy holds out his hand for Raven to take, and she glares at him for a minute before taking it. He'd be more annoyed that she was even considering trying to walk back into the base on her own power if he didn't know that her accepting the help at all is a monumental step forward. Raven did three missions on a bum leg before she showed up one day with ridiculously high-tech leg brace that her friend in engineering apparently forced onto her.

She gets up, slowly, and wobbles slightly before she finds a good balance leaning on Bellamy. "Good to know you're useful for something, Blake."

"Yeah, yeah. Just take it easy, it's not a race or anything." Bellamy glances over at Clarke. "Call me if it can't be fixed in a couple hours."

"Of course." Clarke smiles, and it still looks a little wrong, but that's better than it's been looking lately, so Bellamy will take it. "I'll see you guys at dinner."

Wells and Monty are taking care of the object, and Lincoln's gone off to give Jaha the mission report so it's just him and Raven immediately walking back to the living quarters. She doesn't seem to be in a whole lot of pain, so that's good—Bellamy's never sure how serious her leg injury actually is, but he knows that it's much harder for Raven to deal with when she's not wearing her brace.

"Hey," Raven says suddenly. "Don't let Clarke think this is her fault or anything. You know how she gets sometimes, and I should have known there was a possibility I'd get drenched and the brace would freak out."

"Why are you telling me?" Bellamy wasn't planning on letting Clarke feel bad for herself because Raven made a dumb mistake anyway, but he's curious why she feels the need to explicitly say this to him. "Wells usually handles stuff like that."

"Nah." She chuckles slightly, swaying with the motion. "Wells is her best friend or whatever you want to call it, but his way of dealing with stuff like that is the worst. He'll let her think it was his fault instead. You'll just slap her upside the head, which is better in the long run."

Bellamy opens his mouth, intending to respond—maybe say that what she's said about Wells isn't true at all—but there's really nothing he can say to that. Raven is scarily perceptive, sometimes. It's why Bellamy tries to stay on her good side.

"Don't worry so much about her either," Raven says. "Clarke's a big girl, she can take care of herself. I know you're always worrying about us when we do stupid shit, but I'm sure she'll work off the effects of that orb soon. She's a survivor. You know that."

"Yeah." Bellamy nods. "I'm sure she will."

\----

Predictably, Octavia fusses over Raven when she sees Raven's not wearing her brace. Apparently she's made mac and cheese for dinner—proper mac and cheese, not the crap that comes out of a box—and lasagna, which Bellamy takes as a sign that she got really bored while she was waiting for them. There's also cookies cooling on the counter, which is further proof that they really ought to find something for Octavia to do while she learns how to control her powers.

She does a lot of research for the team on possible Mountain Men hideouts and stuff like that, but that's not really something that takes all day or something that they even need all the time. Maybe she could pick up a hobby like . . . knitting. Then again, the less Octavia is around flammable objects, the better. He'll have to ask Clarke for ideas later.

"Don't smother her on the way to the bath," Bellamy says, mock serious. Octavia knows, because she rolls her eyes. "I'm going to take a shower, everyone should be back in twenty minutes or so."

"You _better_ ," Octavia grumbles. "Yesterday you were all an hour late to dinner and you didn't even have a mission."

\----

It takes more like thirty minutes for everyone to gather together for dinner, but Bellamy supposes that Octavia can't be that mad about it since that's about what passes for on time with this team. Jaha's eating with them, like he usually does after they've had a mission, and it's nice. Bellamy likes that he and Octavia have been able to find a place where they fit in. Where they have a family.

After dinner, Bellamy sits down next to Clarke on the cough. "So, what's the word on the brace?"

"It'll be done by tomorrow morning, probably. Jaha already knows we can't be called on an emergency night mission tonight."

"That's good." Bellamy hands Clarke one of Octavia's cookies, which she eyes warily but takes anyway. "Hey, so I was thinking: Octavia seems kind of bored lately."

"Wouldn't you be?" Clarke still hasn't eaten her cookie, and Bellamy's kind of worried she's like. Calculating exactly how many calories are in it or something. That's not something Clarke usually worries about, but she gets on these weird health kicks sometimes. "She's stuck here all day without a whole lot to do."

"That's what I wanted to ask you about. I still don't think she's got enough control for fieldwork, but there's got to be _something_ she can do. Like, a hobby."

"Why are you asking me about this?" Clarke's brought the cookie up to her mouth, and Bellamy almost sighs in relief. "She's your sister. You should know what kinds of things she'd like to do."

"I do, but." Bellamy sighs. He knows his sister, and he knows that the kinds of things she'd like to do are all dangerous things he'd rather not have her do. Octavia has always wanted to _live_ , as she puts it, and that basically translates into seeking danger wherever she goes. "I want a _safe_ hobby for her to take up. Something that'll make her feel helpful."

"She mentioned wanting to learn basic medical skills, and I mentioned to Jaha a while back that I could have a little seminar about it." Clark takes a bite of the cookie and chews thoughtfully before swallowing. "But maybe it'd be better to send her though the actual medical training course? Lincoln also mentioned yoga might be good for her, I think. He said it'd help her focus."

"See, this is why I asked you." Bellamy bumps their shoulders together and smiles at Clarke. "I never would have thought of either of those."

Clarke smiles back, and this time it looks exactly the way it should: bright, with a little bit of bite.

\----

Miller doesn't keep in constant contact or anything, so when Bellamy doesn't get a message from him for a couple of days it's not a huge deal or anything. He just keeps going about his business and tries not to worry too much because that way lies madness. 

Madness also lies right in front of him, apparently, because their current mission involves dragons.

Thankfully, the dragons aren't a terrible genetic experiment gone wrong that the Mountain Men decided to dump on some unsuspecting city but that's about the only good thing Bellamy can say about the current situation because _someone forgot the fire extinguisher_.

"You were supposed to grab the fire extinguisher," Bellamy hisses at Wells. Because Wells was. "Did _nobody_ grab the fire extinguisher?"

" _You_ were supposed to grab the fire extinguisher," Wells says back. He's currently trying to find another fire extinguisher in the vicinity. "We worked this out yesterday."

"Both of you shut _up_ ," Clarke hisses. Her voice crackles with poor connection. "Just keep your eyes open for the glass dragon statue."

"I have located the target object," Lincoln says over the comms. "Whoever has the fire extinguisher, please bring it sooner rather than later."

Bellamy's not entirely sure what happens next, because all he hears is yelling and he and Wells are rushing into the room where Lincoln is lying on the floor and Clarke is in some kind of show-down with someone and there's fog coming out of the dragon statue and then there's a fucking dragon in the room.

If he could have literally any other job in this moment, Bellamy would be a happier person. "Wells, go check Lincoln! Monty, get your ass out of the van and _bring the goddamn fire extinguisher_! Clarke, _shoot him_!"

As he's yelling out orders, Bellamy punches a guy that popped up out of nowhere. It's a pretty common thing with these kinds of missions, lackeys hiding in wait and popping up at the worst possible time, and Bellamy really wishes Raven were with them but she had some kind of doctor's appointment about her knee so she told them all to have fun on their mission.

"Clarke," Wells says. He sounds alarmed, which is never a good sign. "I have no idea what's wrong, you're the medic."

"Kinda busy!" Clarke dodges some guy, but Bellamy can tell she's headed over towards where Lincoln is, slowly. Thankfully, the lackeys seem to be thinning out. "Is he still breathing?"

"Barely!" Wells sounds downright panicked, and Bellamy would try and comfort him but it's kind of hard to fight while also trying to avoid a dragon breathing fire. "Bellamy, look out!"

Dropping into a roll, Bellamy manages to trick the guy he's currently fighting into getting hit by the dragon's spray of fire. He also gets slightly singed in the process, but whatever. That's about what he was expecting and anyway it's not the worst injury he's gotten on the job.

It feels like it's been forever, and Bellamy's about to yell at Monty asking where the goddamn fire extinguisher is when Monty bursts into the room. He somehow manages to get on his knees and slide close enough to the statue to spray it with the fire extinguisher before smashing it.

Not bad for his first time out of the van, Bellamy thinks.

\----

"Lincoln will be fine," Clarke says, hands on her hips. "Now let me treat your damn burns, Bellamy!"

"I still think you should be taking care of him. I know how to treat burns, Clarke."

"Wells!" Clarke turns, yelling for Wells, and Bellamy gets the feeling he's not going to like what happens next. "Please hold Bellamy down, since he refuses to let me treat him, as the _team medic_."

To his credit, Wells actually looks between Clarke and Bellamy for a second before he does anything. Bellamy isn't feeling very charitable, though, because Wells does hold him down so Clarke can treat his burns. He tries struggling, because he's team leader and he shouldn't have to be treated like a baby, but sometimes Bellamy forgets that Wells works out.

"This is gross mistreatment of an elder," Bellamy says, once he gives up on struggling. "I'm going to tell Jaha."

"People who act like babies get treated like babies." Clarke's inspecting his burns, and Bellamy tries to stay as still as possible. There's no point in moving now and potentially exacerbating his condition. "The good news is that none of this is third degree burns. The bad news is that this in conjunction with Lincoln's injuries means that our team is benched for the next week while you all get better."

"Ugh." Bellamy scrunches up his face. Being benched is the _worst_. "Why do you have to be such a good medic? Why can't you just let us work even when we're injured?"

"Because we don't need a repeat of Raven's leg." Clarke brings a bucket of cold water over and gently sticks Bellamy's arm in it. "Besides, I think we could all use a break."

They really could, and Bellamy thinks that the way Clarke often decides what's best for everybody without consulting them is kind of annoying, but it's also something that he admires about her. She's his favorite member of the team (besides Octavia, for obvious reasons) and Bellamy's not sure what he'd do without her.

\----

Dinner that night is loud, partly because everyone is slightly drunk—Bellamy's not sure who had the bright idea to bust out the wine, but he's not exactly condemning them—and partly because they all know they're going to have downtime for the next week.

Also Monty keeps recounting the mission and his mad sprint to get the fire extinguisher to them in time, which gets more and more unbelievable with every retelling.

After dinner, everyone stumbles to their own beds and then it's just Bellamy and Clarke sitting in the common room while some terrible romantic comedy plays on the TV. He's not sure what it's called, but Bellamy is kind of invested in the plot, currently. That might be the wine talking, but somehow he's not sure.

"She's too good for all these boys," Bellamy says. He gestures at the TV with the hand not holding the wine glass. "They're all terrible, she should date her best friend."

"That would be a very different movie," Clarke says. Something in her voice makes him look over, and he finds her staring at him. "Do you believe in destiny?"

"No." He doesn't even think before he answers, because there are many things that life has taught him and one of those things is that very little in life is certain. His mother wasn't meant to have another child, and yet Octavia exists. Maybe it's not quite accurate to say that he doesn't believe in destiny, though. "Well, not in the way you probably mean it. There are things we can do, paths we can take, but there's no right answer. Is there some reason why you're asking, or are you just a philosophical drunk today?"

Clarke looks away, eyes focused on the TV, and she's quite for so long that Bellamy's figured that she's just not going to answer when she speaks up again, more quietly than she normally would. "The orb I picked up, it showed me things—the way things would be—and I'm not sure if I like what it showed me."

"So change it." Bellamy takes another sip of wine. "It should be easy, now that you know what's going to happen."

"Yeah." Clarke doesn't sound convinced, but Bellamy thinks that's ok. This is the sort of thing she has to come to her own conclusions about. "I guess."

\----

By the time the team is back to taking on missions again, it's been two weeks since Bellamy heard from Miller. He's tried to get in contact with him multiples times, but there's nothing so he gathers up the team and tells them that they're going in.

"Lincoln, do you know what Miller was working on?" Lincoln shakes his head, but he spreads out some probably classified files he shouldn't have about currently undercover ops. Bellamy looks them over quickly before holding up the one that sounds the closest to what Miller's been describing to him. "What do you know about this mission?"

It's not like Lincoln is a chatty person, but Bellamy can definitely see that he's debating whether he should say something or not and they really don't have time for this. Bellamy's about to ask him again when Lincoln finally opens his mouth. "That is a mission to infiltrate a possible human experimentation ring."

"Are we talking like. Giving people superpowers kind of experimenting or fusing fish DNA and human DNA together kind of experimenting?" Raven is rubbing her temples like she doesn't want to deal with this and Bellamy doesn't blame her. "Not that either of those is a fun time, but one of them is potentially way more dangerous and I'd like to know what level of danger we're going to be walking into."

"The last I heard from some other Grounders was that the Mountain Men are currently trying to turn humans into weapons." Lincoln looks extremely uneasy delivering this information, and Bellamy doesn't blame him. "Nobody knows exactly what kind of weapons, though."

"I'll prepare the upgraded first-aid kit," Clarke says. She's been a little weird since they talked, but Bellamy's pretty sure she's just working herself out. She'll be back to normal in no time. "Monty, request a larger van. Something tells me we're going to be extracting more people than just Bellamy's friend."

"This is going to be a total shitshow." Raven shakes her head slightly. "Wells, come with me after this. I'm going to need _way_ more explosives if we're going to blow up an entire Mountain Men base."

"All right," Bellamy says. "So here's the blueprint for the building they assume is being used as a base."

\----

Raven's right: the whole mission is a shitshow from start to finish.

They start out the mission by tripping an alarm, so immediately they're shooting down Mountain Men and trying to get to their actual goals before something _else_ goes to shit—which of course is when Bellamy and Clarke finally stumble into where they're keeping the humans that are being experimented on and Bellamy immediately has to tell Monty to request backup. As in every single spare set of hands that the Ark can spare because there's not five or six people being kept like they initially thought: there's _dozens_.

"Which one is Miller?" Clarke is looking over all the people hooked up to machines Bellamy can't even pretend to understand, and Bellamy can see her prioritizing. "I'll get him first and then—"

"No." Bellamy knows that Miller wouldn't want that, now that they've seen the full extent of what the Mountain Men are up to. "Help whoever you think needs it most first. I've got your back."

"Bellamy." Clarke turns to him, and Bellamy can see the fingers of her free hand, the one not carrying her gun, have curled into a first. "Which one is Miller?"

"We don't have time for this, Clarke! _Help whoever needs it most_. That's who Miller is."

There's fury in Clarke's eyes for a moment, and then she turns and starts getting to work. While she's working, Bellamy radios Wells hoping for better news. He doesn't get better news—in fact he gets the opposite.

"They're heading you way. Lincoln and I will try to stop them, but there's so many of them I don't know if we'll get them all."

"Raven?" Bellamy is getting desperate to hear that at least _one_ thing is going right. "Please say you're doing ok."

"I could be better," Raven says. Bellamy is all too aware that basically means everything is shit when Raven says it. "You'll get your explosion, though. I can promise you that."

"Monty! ETA on backup!"

"Jaha says they'll be here within five minutes." Bellamy can hear Monty's furious typing, and he's glad that at least one of them is getting their job done with minimal problems. "But we've got a bigger problem. You and Clarke are going to want to go down the hall to the last door on the left."

"Clarke's busy," Bellamy says. "I'll go and—"

"No," Monty says. It's very solemn, and Bellamy doesn't like that tone coming from Monty's mouth. "Whatever she's doing can wait, this is more important."

Sighing, Bellamy motions for Clarke to come with him. She must have heard Monty too, because she comes without complaint. When they reach the door Monty indicated, Bellamy has no idea what to expect. It's certainly not Miller, hookers up to some sort of . . . Bellamy honestly doesn't even know what the machine is supposed to do, only that it looks like something terrifying and straight out of a sci-fi movie.

"Miller." Distantly, Bellamy is aware of his gun clattering to the floor. "Miller!"

He's about to run over, but Clarke grabs him. "Don't. We don't know what this machine does yet. Monty?"

"It's . . . some kind of . . . laser?" Monty sounds really unsure. "I don't really know, it's not like anything I've seen before, but I can tell you he's hooked _straight_ into the machine. I'm not sure if you can successfully remove him from it."

"Then we'll have to take it with us." 

Clarke's face is determined, and Bellamy doesn't like the sound of that. He likes it even less when he sees what Clarke is pulling from her bag. There is no way in _hell_ she's using that thing on Miller.

"Are you _crazy_ , Clarke? That's the thing that gave Octavia fire powers and we still don't know how the hell it works—or if it'll work on someone else at all!"

"It's fine." Clarke is carefully walking over to where Miller is, holding the object with her gloved hands. "Remember how you said Octavia was bored? Well, Jaha told her to look into the specific properties of some of the objects we've captured over the past year with some of the Grounders. She figured out exactly what this one does and how it works."

"And what, exactly does it do?" Bellamy's still wary, but he can at least admit that they don't really have a whole lot of options. "Besides give people uncontrollable and deadly superpowers?"

"It fuses people to an object they're touching at the time it's activated." Clarke's twisting some things around and doing other weird things Bellamy doesn't have a good feeling about. "Octavia was holding a candle when she activated it, hence the fire powers."

"What's it gonna give him?" Bellamy's panicking, even though he knows that don't have much choice here. "You can't do this, Clarke."

Clarke turns to looks a Bellamy, and her face says everything. "Do we really have a choice?"

\---

By the time backup comes, they've got Miller free from the machine and he seems stable. Bellamy keeps watch over him while Clarke goes to try and help as many of the remaining people as she can before back-up arrives. They manage to save everyone else without having to use the object again, which Bellamy is grateful for. Miller's still unconscious, so they have no idea what his powers are and that's even more frightening than when Octavia could suddenly set people on fire.

"Hey," Clarke says after they're done. Miller's been loaded into their van along with several others, and Bellamy's watching him like a hawk for signs. "He'll be fine. They're all going to be fine."

"Yeah." Bellamy looks away, over at Clarke. "I just wish . . ."

"We don't always win," Clarke says. She sits down next to Bellamy, her eyes glued to the monitor Miller's been hooked up to. "Sometimes that means things like this are bound to happen."

"I know." He sighs, not knowing what else to say. Clarke leans over, her head resting on his shoulder, and it's. "But I guess I always hope they won't."

\----

When they get back to base, Miller immediately goes to medical, along with the rest of the people they've managed to save. Bellamy doesn't go with him, even though he wants to, because there's other things to deal with. Clarke has to patch them all up—Bellamy's got a weird cut on his face he doesn't even know the origins of—and then he has to go debrief with Jaha.

The debrief, of course, is a total mess. Bellamy was expecting that, since it's not like he exactly got permission to go on this mission and, uh, it was kind of a shitshow. _He_ doesn't care, because they brought down a Mountain Men base and now everyone is safe, and he's pretty sure Jaha doesn't care nearly as much as this debrief is making it seem like but sometimes authority figures have to yell because it's proper. Bellamy's pretty sure that's the case here.

After two hours of being yelled at that Bellamy only minimally pays attention to, Bellamy makes his way to where everyone is slowly eating dinner. They're all exhausted, Bellamy can tell, because they're not even sniping at each other. Lincoln is sitting next to Octavia, which is weird because Octavia usually sits between to Monty and him. He doesn't have the brainpower to think about what that means, though.

"We're benched for four days due to gross misconduct," Bellamy announces. The only seat left is next to Clarke, so Bellamy takes it. "Except I got the feeling we're actually benched so Clarke and the rest of you with medical training can go help with the influx of new patients."

"That's a relief." Raven rolls her eyes. "And here I thought we were all going to be fired."

"My father wouldn't fire us," Wells says. "We're the only team that's managed to take out multiple Mountain Men bases. It's almost our specialty at this point."

"I don't know if you can call it a specialty when most of what we do is collect weird objects, not take out Mountain Men bases," Octavia says. "That seems more like a side effect than anything."

" _You_ don't take out anything," Bellamy says. He points at her with his fork for emphasis. "But I agree. We've only taken out, what? Four bases?"

Wells shrugs. "That's three more than any other team. Usually someone gets injured in the process or the team disbands before they can get to the second one."

"I'm the only medic to be with a single team for more than six months," Clarke says. She seems to mainly be pushing food around on her plate, because it doesn't look like she's eaten anything. "Which I thought was kind of weird until I realized that Jaha and the others move people around to where they feel like they'll be most useful. We're the only team they keep stable."

"I don't know if that's a good thing," Raven says. She smiling, though, so Bellamy doesn't take it personally. "It means I have to see you losers all the time."

"You know you love us, Raven." Octavia smiles her best, most winning smile—the one their mother used to call her pageant girl smile. "We're like family!"

"Yeah." Raven nods. "Yeah, we are."

\----

Miller finally wakes up towards the end of the four days they've been benched. Bellamy's been spending most of that time in his hospital room, honestly, because he's worried. Besides, Octavia's busy helping with the other patients and it's not like Bellamy has a burning desire to hang out with Monty. Don't get him wrong, he likes Monty and all but Monty's not his first choice for someone to hang out with.

"Hey," Miller says. It's dry and raspy, the way people sound when they've been asleep for too long. "I see you found me."

"Yeah." Bellamy smiles, even though his eyes are getting misty. "Sorry it took so long, my team got benched for a week and there wasn't that much I could do about it."

"You came for me." Miller weakly moves his arm, settling his hand over where Bellamy's clutching the sheets. "That's all that matters."

Bellamy means to tell Miller then that he's probably got some kind of freaky, untested superpower. He really does, but he figures that there will be time for that later. For the moment, he's content knowing that Miller's going to be okay.

\----

As it turns out, Miller has some kind of . . . bomb creation power. Like Octavia, he gets benched indefinitely because it's wildly unstable. Lincoln _also_ gets benched, since he was the one who helped Octavia with her powers and they figure his techniques aren't really limited to just fire-starting powers.

Which means that Lincoln isn't with them when they have to take out something Monty's taken to calling "the carnival of death."

"I'm going to find whoever created this stupid thing," Raven says as she tries to figure out how to shut down the swing set that's started spinning way too fast, "and then I'm going to shoot them _dead_."

"Take a number," Clarke yells from where she and Wells are trying to figure out how to shut down the rollercoaster. "This is _sick_."

"Monty," Bellamy says, "any idea when the hell you're going to be done finding the source of all this madness?"

"I'm working as fast as I can, _Bellamy_." Monty sounds stressed, and Bellamy would feel bad but he's too busy trying to shut the spinning bear ride down. God, he's never going to a carnival ever again. "But if it makes you feel better, I don't think the Mountain Men are behind this."

"That makes me feel loads better," Raven says. She's managed to get the swings spinning at a reasonable rate, which is better than the rest of them. "There's _other_ people in this world who are just as messed up as the Mountain Men! _Terrific_."

"Got it!" Monty whoops in delight. "There's a golden ring, on the carousel. Bag it and everything should go back to normal."

"Raven!" Bellamy's already headed toward the carousel. "Take over this one, I'm going after the ring!!"

He doesn't bother to check if Raven's actually taking over, he already knows she will. Stepping onto the carousel, Bellamy braces himself as it mysteriously powers on and starts gaining speed. He doesn't see the ring, and he's about to ask Monty if he has a more specific location when a golden ring materializes in front of him. He grabs for it, but it moves just out of reach and Bellamy hates his job, because it's. It's going to be one of _those_ days.

It takes him five minutes to finally grab the stupid ring and bag it, which immediately causes the carousel to come to a screeching halt. Really, he should have been expecting that but Bellamy hits his head on a stupid fiberglass horse when it stop anyway, because that's just his life.

\----

"Well," Clarke says, "you don't have a concussion."

"That's the best news I've heard all day." Bellamy is aware he sounds really bitter, but he can't help it. "I didn't get a concussion from a carousel. Happy day."

"Oh shut up," Octavia says. She punches him in the arm way harder than is warranted. "I was worried about you, you jerk."

She hugs him fiercely, and over her shoulder Bellamy's eyes meet Clarke's. There's a moment where it feels like she's going to say something but then Octavia's pulling away, babbling about how she wouldn't know what to do if he wasn't around and he's not allowed to die ever, pushing the moment away into nothingness.

\----

The rest of the team—including Miller for some reason—goes out to a bar later that week. Bellamy stays at base because he has important leader-y type paperwork and also because if his little sister is going to get trashed and go home with some guy, then he doesn't want to know about it. Despite what the others think, Bellamy doesn't want his sister to _not_ have fun. It's just . . . he wishes he could protect her from everything bad that might happen to her. Working this job has taught him that there's no way he can actually accomplish that, so he's started taking a more hands-off approach to dealing with Octavia's life.

"Hey," Miller says the day after. They're off, because Jaha does try not to send teams out every day if he can help it. "You missed a wild night—you should have seen Octavia and Lincoln."

Which doesn't mean he's ready for Miller to drop a total bombshell on him about Octavia.

"Huh?"

Miller squints at Bellamy. "Did you not know about Lincoln and Octavia? Do you not have _eyes_?"

"I thought they were just friends." Now that he says that out loud, he realize how stupid it sounds. "Like she is with Monty?"

". . . Monty's, uh. Monty's mainly into dudes, Bellamy." Miller looks embarrassed for some reason, and Bellamy has no idea why. "Which is not to say that girls and guys can't be friends, but I'm just saying that the possibility existed with Lincoln and it didn't really with Monty."

Bellamy will admit that he's not necessarily the fastest person to catch on when it comes to relationships, but he knows his friends and he totally knows the tone in Miller's voice which causes the wheels in his head to turn as he realizes what Miller _isn't_ saying. Namely: he may or may not have banged Monty. 

" _You didn't_." Bellamy's not entirely sure whether he's objecting to the fact that Monty is his teammate or Miller is his best friend. "Please tell me you didn't."

"We promised not to lie to each other," Miller says, which is not a good sign. "So I cannot, in good conscience, tell you I didn't make a move or seven on Monty and maybe make out with him."

This is too much for Bellamy to take in at once. He faceplants onto his desk. "I hate this job and how you can only date other people who also have this job."

"So," Miller says, "does that mean you're going to finally make a move on Clarke?"

" _What_?" There is so much going on in this conversation that Bellamy doesn't want to deal with. Like, ever. "Why would I do that? Clarke's my _friend_."

"Bellamy." Miller places a hand on his shoulder and looks him straight in the eye. "I hate to tell you this, but when Clarke is in the room, you sometimes pay more attention to her than Octavia."

Groaning, Bellamy puts his head on his desk again. Maybe if he stays there for long enough, he can pretend he never had this conversation.

\----

Octavia doesn't come find him until a couple weeks later—they _talk_ , just not about her new boyfriend who probably knows sixty ways to kill a man with a toothpick. He can tell she's finally ready to talk to him about it, though, because she takes a deep breath before she sits down, like she's trying to psych herself up to something. He does the same thing when he has to say something important.

"So you may not have noticed," Octavia starts, "but Lincoln and I have started dating. Now, before you get angry, just let me—"

"Octavia, you're over 18." Bellamy pulls her close and kisses her temple. "I don't get a say in who you choose to date anymore—unless you choose someone like Jasper. I reserve the right to object if you choose someone objectionable, but you don't have to listen to me."

"I really like him," Octavia says quietly. She leans into him. "I think I might even love him."

"Lincoln's a good guy." Bellamy pats Octavia's shoulder. "He'd probably be angrier at himself that I would be at him if he hurt you."

"I'm glad you don't try to protect me from everything anymore." Octavia pulls away and punches him in the shoulder lightly. "It got old really fast."

"I'm glad I don't have to," Bellamy says. He's surprised to find that he means it. "It means mom and I raised you right, after all."

\----

Between the possible vampire infestation, poisoned apples (since the Mountain Men seem to be trying to simultaneously destroy Bellamy's childhood while they destroy the world), flying cows, and all the other ridiculous and not so ridiculous Mountain Men plots, Bellamy is exhausted. He doesn't even notice the months flying by and he's almost forgotten about what Clarke did to save Miller.

Which, you know. He's good with that, because time has given Bellamy the distance to know that it was the only option they had at the time. Still, none of them quite anticipated the way that it would come back to bite them in the ass later.

"You did _what_?" Raven's yelling at Clarke, which is unfair because really. How were they supposed to know that by fusing Miller with the machine they basically accomplished _exactly_ what the Mountain Men had been trying to create. "God, I don't even have words for how stupid this whole situation is."

"Clarke didn't have much of a choice," Bellamy says. He figures that he should pitch in, so Raven doesn't think this was only Clarke's fault. "The important thing is that we have to disable the machine before it takes out all of goddamn Chicago."

"I do not get paid enough for this," Raven mutters darkly. It's true, none of them get paid enough for all the times they've single-handedly saved the world. "All right. Monty comes with me. Octavia is temporarily reinstated as comms because we don't have a whole lot of choice here, Lincoln and Wells are keeping our backs safe and Bellamy and Clarke stay with Miller to make sure nobody comes and tries to do something stupid like _steal_ him."

Everyone looks at each other, like they're waiting for someone to disagree but none of them do. In the end, they do exactly as Raven says.

\----

They don't talk much while they're guarding Miller. It shouldn't be an awkward silence, because the nice thing about his relationship with Clarke is that they can both be quiet when they don't have anything to say, but it is. Bellamy can tell that Clarke wants to say something, and if it were anyone else he'd have yelled at them to just say whatever it is by now. Clarke works differently than most people though—if you don't give Clarke space, sometimes she doesn't say what needs to be said.

"I'm sorry," Clarke finally says after twenty minutes of silence. She's looking down at the ground, and Bellamy knows what she's going to say next even before she opens her mouth. "This is all my fault."

"It's not," Bellamy says. He reaches out, gripping her shoulder tightly. "Listen to me, Clarke: you couldn't have known. This isn't just _your_ fault."

Clarke doesn't look like she believes him, but that's fine. They don't really have time for deep soul-searching at the moment. Miller looks between the two of them and then waggles his eyebrows inappropriately at Bellamy. Without looking, Bellamy discreetly flips him the bird. Now's not the time for confessions—that'll come later, after they've won.

He firmly believes they'll win. His team will make sure of it.

\----

The world doesn't end. Bellamy has no idea how the rest of the team pulls it off, because he and Clarke are busy fighting with the rest of the people in the base against the infiltration of Mountain Men, but they do and the world doesn't end.

"We did it," Raven says over the comms. "Requesting a team to help us break this machine down and take it back to base for further study."

"We did it," Clarke says quietly. She's been so determined since the whole fight started, and Bellamy has no idea what she's been thinking—not that Clarke is an easy person to read even normally. "Bellamy, there's something I have to tell you."

"Sure," Bellamy says. 

He intends to say something else, but then Clarke is pressed against him, kissing him fiercely. Distantly, Bellamy is aware that Miller is wolf whistling, but really all he's aware of in that moment is that Clarke—wonderful, dependable, sane Clarke—is kissing him. It's kind of unexpected, but then again one of Bellamy's favorite things about Clarke is how unpredictable she can be.

"I choose this." 

Her fingers are twisted in Bellamy's shirt, and her words are whisper quiet. Bellamy doesn't even think they're meant for him—even setting aside the fact that he has no idea what they mean. He thinks it must have something to do with what she said once—that she touched the orb and it showed her how things were meant to be—and Bellamy thinks that maybe he should ask her whether this is how they were meant to be or if Clarke really did forge her own destiny, but he thinks he knows the answer.

"What if I say no?" Bellamy's not going to, but he's curious. "What happens then?"

Clarke's brow furrows, like she hadn't even considered that option, and then she smiles. "That's fine. I'll just make a different destiny."

"Sounds like a lot of work," Bellamy says. He touches his forehead to hers. "Good think I wasn't planning on saying no."

"Get it, Bellamy!" 

Miller whoops, and Clarke laughs. It's infectious, and pretty soon Bellamy's laughing too—which is how the team finds the three of them: sitting on the floor and laughing so hard they can't breathe.

The Mountain Men aren't defeated, Bellamy knows, and the Ark has to move bases now that the Mountain Men are aware of their home base, but he can't really feel anything but deliriously happy. For all of the terrible things that his job has brought him, he can't deny that it's also given him a family who will help him save the world and only complain a little.

Okay, maybe a lot. But truthfully? He wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
